By Gabriel Secundino
Staff Writer

Dark orange granite lines the pathway of a circular garden at Brookhaven College. At first glance, the windmill shaped garden may look like a crop circle extraterrestrials left behind. The garden is between the West 2 Parking lot and the jogging trail. The xeriscape Windmill Garden is intended to teach visitors about water-wise landscaping through the use of drought-tolerant and drought-resistant plants.

Monica Taliaferro, former director of marketing and public information, started the project and left it in the works.

Prior to her leaving Brookhaven, Taliaferro sent an email in October 2009 to all divisions, informing faculty of the project and then another email in October. 2010 showing an illustrated map of the garden. The illustration shows possible divisions of plots of land for Brookhaven divisions to adopt as their own. When a division decides to adopt an area of land, they pledge to plant and care for the area during the academic year.

Tommy Gallegos, director of facilities management and co-chair of the xeriscape garden project, said he has been waiting on faculty to initiate gardening so the project can move ahead. Gallegos finished installing the granite in Spring 2011.

Kendra Vaglienti, executive dean of the Communications Division, said in an email, “We haven’t received any more information about the project since that first contact; however, I do have a team of faculty volunteers ready to work on the project when we do receive further instructions.”

Sam Govea, dean of social sciences division, said the project was not being sufficiently promoted. Govea said because this project was spearheaded by someone who no longer works at Brookhaven, it is going to take some effort to delegate that responsibility to someone else.

Govea said he would like to see some involvement from student organizations in this project to get more man-power behind it.

“I wonder if this is something the student government could take up as a project for their particular tenure,” Govea said.

Anthony Vance, vice president of the Student Government Association, said he would present the idea in the next SGA meeting.

Gallegos has also initiated a meeting between the xeriscape garden committee, deans and head of departments to “refresh memories” and to decide the next move for